“Thou shalt find the wayfarer to be lowly before all men and
humble before all things”
“the wayfarer must not claim the seat of honour in any
gathering or walk before others in the desire to vaunt and exalt himself”[1]
Humility, these days, is associated with subservience. Its archetype was that toady, horrid
character we remember from Dicken’s classic novel (David Copperfield), “I am
ever so humble, I am” I was struck by Charles Dicken’s own reading
concerning this character. He manages
to put so much odious quality in his voice while speaking as Uriah Heep one
feels instant dislike for the distinctive creepy Uriah.
Until I saw this video I had no idea what an
excellent narrator this author was. Despite all his protestations Uriah was far
from humble but for some reason he epitomises what people have grown to assume
is humility. We have been trained in
literature and history to admire the brave, the audacious, the straight talking
hero and humility has been tarnished with a creeping form of cowardism.
Of course true humility is far from such
false simpering or fear of superiors.
In its truest from humility is that conviction of the nobility of
humanity. A station so exalted that
there can be no other approach but humble recognition. Too often each of us fall far short of what
we could and should be. Nonetheless,
our capacity is great. What we choose
to do with that gift can be appalling. Training ourselves to approach others
convinced of their high station does many things,
- we become aware of our own shortcomings instead of those we meet.
- we begin to look for signs of nobility in all we meet
These two attitudes have consequences that are
transformative for the individual and our communities. It enhances progress as
we are forced to reflect on our own station and then implement change. Also, because we approach others looking for
the good, it is that we focus on. Even
if they have nine bad qualities and only one good, with true humility it is
that single virtue we choose to observe and learn from.
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but
thinking of yourself less."[2]
